Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to methods and systems for inter-working between disparate communication networks and more particularly to inter-working between a walled garden service such as a push-to-talk service and a communication session outside of the walled garden service or between different floor control systems.
There are many standardized as well as proprietary examples of push-to-talk (PTT) systems including push-to-talk-over-cellular (POC) systems. For example, there are well-known cellular services that provide a walkie-talkie-like function to the cellular phone or device. These services allow two or more subscribers to participate in a conference in which a party can push a button to talk to the other participants in the conference. These systems can also perform floor control for the conference. That is, when one participant in the conference pushes the button to talk, that participant is granted control of the floor and the other participants are muted or otherwise prevented from talking.
Most of these PTT services are walled garden services. That is, these services are open only to subscribers of that service and/or service provider or a set of cooperating service providers. The same can be said of proprietary voice chat or PTT systems that can only be used with a client provided for or by the system for users that are therefore on the corresponding private IM/multimedia messaging system. Similarly, other types of multimedia services can provide floor control such as in a PTT system but also are open only to subscribers of that service and/or service provider or a set of cooperating service providers.
In some cases, the service provider may make the service available to another operator but generally require that operator to implement the (same) service provider's proprietary solution(s). However, none of these services are open to clients other than those specifically adapted to operation on the network or the proprietary clients of the network. For example, there are a variety of clients such as multimedia clients, chat clients, Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) clients, etc. that can operate on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) or another signaling protocol and can support similar features but are not adapted to operate with a PTT or POC network or session or to work with other IM networks that offer voice chat or other multimedia service. There are no current solutions to allow such a client to participate in a session on another network with a walled garden, floor controlled system or service. Hence, there is a need for improved methods and systems for inter-working with a walled garden, floor-controlled system service, e.g., between a push-to-talk service and a communication session outside of the walled garden service, between different walled garden PTT systems, between different proprietary IM/multimedia systems offering floor controlled services a la push to talk or voice chat, etc.